Restaging the Sixties

A dynamic exploration of eight radical theater collectives from the 1960s and 70s, and their influence on contemporary performance

Description

In the volatile period of the late sixties and early seventies, several theater groups came to prominence in the United States, informing and shaping activist theater as we know it today. Restaging the Sixties examines the artistry, politics, and legacies of eight radical collectives: the Living Theatre, the Open Theatre, the Performance Group, the San Francisco Mime Troupe, El Teatro Campesino, At the Foot of the Mountain, the Free Southern Theater, and Bread and Puppet Theater. Each of the specially commissioned essays is from a leading theater artist, critic, or scholar. The essays follow a three-part structure that first provides a historical overview of each group's work, then an exploration of the group's significant contributions to political theater, and finally, the legacy of those contributions.

The volume explores how creations such as the Living Theatre's Paradise Now and the Performance Group's Dionysus in 69 overlapped with political interests that, in the late 1960s, highlighted the notion of social collectives as a radical alternative to mainstream society. Situating theatrical practice within this socio-political context, the book considers how radical theaters sought to redefine the relationship between theater and political activism, and how, as a result, they challenged the foundations of theater itself.

James M. Harding is Associate Professor of English at Mary Washington University. His other books include Not the Other Avant-Garde: The Transnational Foundations of Avant-Garde Performance.

Praise / Awards

"A useful introduction to an eclectic period of experimental theater, providing portraits of the major political theaters and engaging with new vigor many of the era's familiar aesthetic and ideological concerns. The writers offer a provocative history of theater's attraction to (and occasional anxiety over) activism." —Marc Robinson, Yale University

"Ultimately, Restaging the Sixties' wide variety of scholarly approaches and clear vision about its historiographical mission allows it to restage not only experimental theatre performances, but also the telling of their histories and legacies. As such, it is a major contribution to the study of American experimental theatre." —TDR

"This collection is refreshing because it looks at theaters in all parts of the United States. . . . This is an excellent resource for those interested in modern theater history, theory and criticism, and the changes that theater can bring to society." —Choice